Wild Girl: A Rejected Mate Romance

by C. R. Jane

The man behind us must have been her husband. His cries filled the air, the sound of his grief like bullets peppering me in the back, threatening to swallow me whole. In my mind, images of my mother flashed forward. The way she’d been thrown out into the driveway by Alistair with a huge blade sticking out of her chest.

  So much blood.

  Just like this woman. Blood kept seeping from her wound, oozing down her flesh and collecting in the ditch beneath her.

  Someone behind me screamed, “Hunters. They’re here. They found us.” After that the pandemonium around us became a chorus of terrifying voices and accusations.

  But I couldn't look away from this poor woman because I’d seen this kind of death before. I’d laid witness to this horror when I found Eve, when I saw the other pack member killed behind the town hall.

  Wilder and some of his pack members were bellowing orders for everyone to return to their homes. “Keep calm. There are no indications Mary died at the hands of a Hunter.”

  After that I blocked out all the sounds.

  Daxon crouched beside me. “The hunters didn’t do this,” he said.

  “I know,” I added. “It’s exactly the same way the last two murders happened with their throats ripped out.”

  Daxon leaned forward, taking a deep inhale, his nostrils flaring. “Why can’t I smell the killer’s scent?”

  “Hmm. What gets close enough to a wolf shifter to kill them but doesn’t leave a smell at the scene?”

  “Fuck if I know,” he growled. “But someone in town’s been preying on us.”

  “A serial killer,” I whispered.

  “Perhaps,” he responds begrudgingly.

  Around us Wilder had successfully dispersed the crowd away from the murder scene, members of his pack keeping everyone at a fair distance and sending them home.

  Daxon took my hand and lifted me to my feet. Wilder was next to us. “This is fucked up.”

  “I think it’s someone in town,” Daxon snarled. “And I’m going to rip them to shreds when I find them.”

  “Agreed,” Wilder muttered. “Same killing style. They always do it near the woods to give themselves a quick get away. I’m going to take a group of trackers out with me and scour the forest. But shit, this couldn’t have come at a worst time.”

  “Bet you anything, the killer was in the town hall meeting last night, and counted on everyone panicking and blaming the hunters.”

  “Then we need a trap,” I suggested. “Something to draw them out.” The persistence of panic wriggled over my skin that perhaps the killer was watching us right now, enjoying the chaos they created.

  But I refused to let myself explore that notion or I’d fall into the same state of alarm as the others in town. I swallowed the need to vomit and pretended that it didn’t affect me, which meant focusing on something else. Something like finding out who the hell was targeting us. All while dealing with the terrifying notion that I still hadn’t stopped my body from going into random bouts of heat, or that hunters could track me down if they didn't find a permanent solution.

  Wilder growled and stalked over to his men.

  Daxon cupped the side of my cheek. “Are you alright after seeing this?” His words are gentle, his eyes searching my face for a response.

  “Yeah, I’m good, just worried for us, for everyone.”

  He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and drew me under his arm. “There’s a shitstorm coming, and we need to find a way to stop it before it hits.”

  His words didn’t comfort me one bit, but it was what all of us were thinking. We were in so much trouble.

  13

  Rune

  Wilder and Daxon were nowhere to be found, and I needed to go pick up a few snacks, figuring if the guys were going to bunk with me every night, I might as well make a movie night out of it.

  I intended to inject as much normality into my life as possible. Looking out for hunters, dealing with a murderer in town, and some of the local pack members hating me was no way to exist. I lived with terror my entire life and couldn’t do that again. So, if it meant accepting that things were shit, then I’d adapt.

  I stepped out of Daxon’s cabin and into the bright morning sunlight, then made a quick turn and hurried along the street and finally reached the grocery store. I grabbed a shopping basket and made a bee-line for the chocolate aisle. Pausing in front of the shelves of sweets, I pondered if I was in a nutty or fruity mood. Who was I kidding... Only monsters ate chocolate with fruit.

  I reached for the nutty M&Ms when a cold breeze blew across my back. So cold, I could have sworn someone just opened a freezer door behind me. Except for the fact I wasn’t anywhere near the frozen foods aisle.

  “Boo!” a female voice yelled in my ear.

  I flinched, dropping the basket and accidently pulling on the plastic lip holding all the chocolates in their place on the shelf. It snapped, coming right off in my hand. Candies suddenly slipped off the slanted shelf, piling up in the aisle from the entire freaking shelf.

  “Shit!” I spun around, dropping the broken shelf, and came face to face with Arcadia in my personal space.

  “What the hell?” I blurted.

  She stood with her hands gripping her hips, her glare ready to destroy me. Except...wait. I blinked, unsure if I was seeing right. Something was really wrong with her. She looked pale, like sickly pale, but not only that… Were those the shelves of flavored popcorn behind her that I saw right through her body?

  I blinked again, convinced I was really losing my mind. It had finally happened. I had snapped and was hallucinating.

  “Of course, I’d find you buying chocolate,” she sneered and pretended to yawn. She studied me head to toe with a narrowing gaze, full of contempt. “You really have let yourself go, haven’t you? So go ahead and gorge yourself, Miss Piggy.”

  Stupidly, I let her words get to me and I looked down at my blue summer dress. Was I really putting on weight? Her laughter had me lifting my gaze, and I glared at her, except I could see right through her head. “Are you feeling alright?” Or maybe it was me who was sick.

  I couldn’t help myself and reached out to touch her, to see if I was hallucinating or if she was real.

  “Don’t touch me,” she snarled, smacking my arm away, except her hand went right through mine.

  A small cry spilled from my lips, and I jerked backward into the shelves, terrified of what I’d just seen. Slipping over a candy bar, my hands flung outward, frantically grabbing for purchase but ended up bringing more candy to the floor as I fell onto my ass. Crap, the aisle now resembled Willy Wonka’s factory. All that was missing were those orange oompa loompas to rush in here and dance because I was losing my mind.

  Arcadia crouched in front of me. “Listen up, bitch. Just because I’m dead or whatever the fuck this floating in life shit is, you can see me and that means karma is coming to bite your fat ass. And that’s in the form of me.”

  “Y-you’re dead?”

  “Ding ding! Hell, you’re slow. Look at me, I’m freaking transparent. I seriously don’t know what Wilder and Daxon see in you. I guess those two buffoons are just as fucking stupid.”

  She kept on rambling as I got to my feet, while I attempted to make sense of what was happening. If she was dead and became a ghost, it made sense that I saw her as I had seen the other ghosts, but I sure as hell did not need my lovers’ psycho ex haunting me.

  “Who killed—”

  “Aha.” She flung her hand between us, clicking her fingers. “Knew you’d ask that question, and that’s why I’ve been dying to tell you.” She burst out laughing. “O.M.G. I am so hilarious.”

  This girl had some serious issues.

  “I’m listening,” I answered, noticing an older woman turning her trolley to enter the aisle. One look at the river of chocolates and then me standing in the middle like a lunatic, and she slowly backed away. Smart move, lady.

  “Wilder and Daxon, those fucking morons finally did it. They had threatened me but I nev
er thought they’d have the balls. I even told them to do it. But in the end, Wilder chickened out and got Daxon to kill me.” She cackled like somehow that was funny. Clearly, I was missing the joke.

  “You wanted to die?” I asked, trying to actually believe that my men took her out. If they did, they better have a damn good reason, right? Daxon was crazy, I accepted that when I fell for him hard, but Wilder. Nope, that was a hard pill to swallow. Something didn’t ring true here, but I also suddenly realized how little pity I held for Arcadia being dead.

  “Shit, how brain-dead are you?”

  I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly why I felt no sympathy for her. But the shock of her actually being dead tightened my chest. “You aren’t exactly making sense. Stop rambling,” I said.

  “You stop rambling,” she snapped, acting like a child, and I flinched at how loud she spoke. “Of course, I didn’t want to die. Idiot. Do you think I’d choose to spend eternity dressed in this leopard pajama jumpsuit? I was naked when I died. Too bad I couldn’t have stayed like that.” She flicked her perfectly styled hair over a shoulder and lifted her chin with that insulting look she used to give me every time I ran into her. But in truth, that was the first time I really noticed her clothes, what with being distracted by her being transparent and dead!

  “But I have something to tell you,” she bragged in a sing-song voice.

  “I’m waiting,” I answered because she was just as annoying and irritating dead as she was alive. I spotted a couple at the end of the aisle watching me talking to myself. Geez, this wasn’t going to end well, was it?

  “You’re a selfish bitch,” Arcadia spewed the words, and I swung my attention back to her.

  “Excuse me?” My shoulders reared back, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was suddenly on a Jerry Springer show about to get into a hair-pulling fight with my man’s ex.

  “You waltz into town and steal not one but both Alphas in town. Who the fuck does that? They were mine!” she yelled, her face shaking... in fact, all of her was blurring in and out like static.

  “Um, I think you need to calm down,” I suggested, to which she huffed at me. Her mouth opened with what I could only imagine was another slew of insults when she just vanished. Just like that, she popped away. Thank the moon goddess.

  Except as I stood amid more chocolate than I could eat in a lifetime, the truth of what she told me sunk in.

  Wilder and Daxon had killed Arcadia.

  My chest tightened, and I struggled to draw in a breath.

  I turned and ran out of the grocery store empty handed. All I could think about was finding Wilder and Daxon to demand they tell me the truth. It’s not that I didn’t trust my own eyes, but I needed to hear the truth. Sure, the girl was a major bitch, but death... that was a very extreme reaction to someone pissing you off.

  Then again, I was talking about Daxon. Except Arcadia insisted it was Wilder who got Daxon to finish her. With my heart drumming in my chest, I was running faster, making a line right for Wilder’s place. He was located farther behind the town, backing onto the woods. Not too many other cabins lay nearby.

  I knocked on the front door, but when he didn't respond, I retreated and went toward this backyard, though with his lofty fence, it was impossible to see anything. I listened carefully but didn’t hear any sounds, I guessed he wasn’t home. Turning on my heels, I went back to the main road, waving to Mr. Jones as I hurried past his cafe. Next stop, Daxon's cabin, as he could have returned home for all I knew.

  Daxon's cabin lay empty too. I turned on the spot and huffed. Where the heck were these two? I tracked my way back toward town, figuring someone was bound to have seen them somewhere.

  On the way there, I passed the town hall, and something about it paused me in my tracks. Everything I'd encountered in that place had come with trouble, but now I was remembering the two ghost girls from the other night. They'd been haunting the building for a long time, and well, that left me curious about a few things. Like could they have seen what happened outside the building? Could they hover through town like Arcadia seemed to be doing, tracking me down in the grocery store?

  The murders hadn’t left my mind, and what if the ghosts saw who killed the poor guy who had been butchered just behind the town hall?

  I marched across the road and grassy field. Up on the front steps, I pulled at the door handles, but they were locked. Making my way toward the back, I wondered if the rear door was open.

  Shadows from the building darkened the yard, but I found no luck there either.

  I glanced into the woods backing onto the town hall when a flicker of blue caught my attention. A bright electric blue that shouldn't be in the woods, right? Every inch of me trembled with thoughts about hunters and killers. But with it came a deep heart-wrenching feeling that someone else was hurt.

  Looking around, I saw I was alone. Staring back at the blue, I decided to check it quickly because it sat just on the edge of the woods. And I was no fool to go too deep into the forest on my own.

  I stepped closer.

  A piece of fabric flapped in the light breeze.

  I squinted, unable to make sense of what I was looking at. At first glance, it almost appeared like someone was on their hands and knees with the way the shirt was spread out. Shadows didn’t help and it took me a few more steps to finally see that it was just a stupid abandoned shirt.

  I exhaled loudly, breathing easily as I scared myself for nothing. "Geez. Stupid shirt." I snatched it from the shrub and noticed the spray of blood on the front.

  Looking closer, it looked rather fresh, and my hands were shaking. My thoughts narrowed in on the fact that something terrible had happened to whoever owned this shirt.

  The scrape of footsteps sounded from somewhere in front me, and I lifted my gaze to the woods. Darkness shifted through the dense forest, the branches thick with large, green leaves rustling from the breeze.

  I dropped the shirt instantly, and my hand fell to my boot where I stashed Wilder's blade that morning. My heart throbbed in my ears as I wrapped my fingers around the hilt.

  My eyes were glued to the woods when something shifted between two trees in the distance.

  Strong, wide shoulders came into view, but it was too dark to see their face or even the color of their clothes.

  I was frozen in place, dread building in my chest.

  Someone grabbed me by the arm from behind , and panic burst through me. I screamed and swung around, brandishing the knife through the air

  "Whoa," Wilder called out, his other hand snatching my wrist with the weapon before I slashed him across the face.

  Daxon was there too, both of them glaring at me. "What are you doing out here? Shit, Rune!"

  "I-I..." I twisted back around toward the person in the woods, but they were no longer there. "Someone was just standing there." I pointed to the location.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" Daxon growled, then he threw himself into the woods.

  "What's going on?" My gaze followed Daxon until he vanished into the forest, swallowed by shadows.

  Wilder, still grasping my wrist, quickly walked me to the front of the town hall and looked at me with exasperation "Put your knife away."

  Which I did. "Will you tell me what I just walked into?"

  "We set a trap for the killer."

  My mouth dried and his words hit me like a blow to my gut. The shirt, the blood. "Oh shit. That was him, wasn't it? The killer. At least I think it was a he, because they had broad shoulders and seemed like a pretty large build for a guy."

  My words were rambling but my heart was still beating from what I’d just experienced.

  "You've just described every man in town. Rune, you can't go wandering off on your own anymore, please. We’ve told you this a million times." The ache in his gaze grew heavy, and the way he held my arm, his thumb stroking the inside of my wrist, I knew he meant each word.

  My feet were locked to the ground, and I stared back toward the woods, understanding
that not even walking around in broad daylight was safe. Someone was watching us all the time.

  Wilder kept looking over his shoulder and into the forest.

  "You better go," I told Wilder. "Go hunt down that son of a bitch!"

  "Head straight to the Inn so you’re not alone." He kissed my brow and swung around, then darted into the woods in the same direction Daxon disappeared.

  And I stumbled in the opposite direction, unable to shake off the feeling of darkness following me. Or maybe it was the sensation of being watched.

  Fast footsteps took me down the main road where other people wandered around. Having them around made me feel partially safer, except it didn’t stop me from looking over my shoulder every few seconds.

  Quickly, I rounded the Inn and hurried down the small alley that led out to the back entry that overlooked the river. It was quiet here today, and picturesque with the sunlight beaming brightly above me. The scene was quite deceiving as you’d never suspect a killer skulking in the woods surrounding such a perfect town.

  I shook myself, hating how my skin crawled. "Stop freaking out."

  A shadow fell over me, and my thoughts flew to Wilder, coming back to check I’d made it to the Inn in one piece. I smiled as I twisted around to greet him, but it wasn't his face that I found. The man who stood inches from me wore a sneer, his eyes almost glowing. He wore all black, and a cap on backward, his teeth too white, too perfect, with longer canines pushing over his lower lip when he grinned.

  His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air... sniffing me. “You’ve concealed your heat.”

  He was a hunter. Fuck me!

  "I’ve been watching you..." His fist connected with my gut so unexpectedly that I expelled a gurgled sound past my throat.

  Terror thundered through me as I bent forward, clutching my middle and feeling like I was about to vomit the contents of my entire stomach out on the lawn. A horrific pain deepened where he hit, and I cried out, falling to my knees.

  He crouched in front of me, his face in mine, his putrid breath across my face, then grabbed the hair on top of my head, fisting it. "Fucking filthy mutt. You think you could hide from me?" He spat in my face and got up, yanking me by my hair and dragging me with him as he made his way to the river's bank. Death flashed before my eyes.